Bradford Burgess’ senior night at VCU will be different than that of just about every player who has come before him, with the Rams or any other college team.

When Burgess takes the court Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Stuart Siegel Center to oppose rival George Mason in his final home game, it will mark the 141st consecutive start of his career.

Does that seem like a lot? It’s a lot.

Only Kansas superstar Danny Manning had as many. Only Georgetown superstar Patrick Ewing had more in a row. Duke All-American Kyle Singler had the most career starts, 147, but missed one along the way because of injury.

If a record is defined by the athlete who owns it, Burgess is approaching hallowed territory.

“True giants,” Rams coach Shaka Smart said Friday.

Should VCU play two games in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, Burgess will own the mark for consecutive starts outright even before the postseason. It’s not an official NCAA stat. VCU did the research itself once it became apparent Burgess was approaching something extraordinary.

So his name won’t appear in the NCAA record book along with Pete Maravich, who owns the career scoring mark. But then, the NCAA doesn’t put its book into print any longer. It’s all digital. So if future generations Google “NCAA Division I most career starts”, “Bradford Burgess” will be kicked out in response along with Singler, Ewing and Manning.

This kind of individual attention hasn’t come rapidly to Burgess, a 6-6 wing from Midlothian, Va. He always has been productive, but generally in support – of someone such as Eric Maynor, Larry Sanders, Jamie Skeen.

Now, Burgess is VCU’s star. Although he scores fewer points than a year ago (12.9 down from 14.3) and shoots a lower percentage, that’s partly because opponents now consider him the key to the Rams, rather than an important piece.

“He’s played with some terrific players, some guys who were first-round draft picks,” Smart told Sporting News. “He’s been a huge part of all those teams; he just hasn’t been the focal point until this year. I think that’s the way he liked it the first three years – other people getting the attention, the accolades, and him just being a high-level player who helped his team win.

“This year, it’s been completely different. He gets all the attention on other team’s scouting reports. Media, he’s the guy people look at. That was an adjustment for him.”

It’s not the first time Burgess has had to make a major change as a VCU player. After his first season, when he started every game and averaged 7.4 points, coach Anthony Grant got the chance to coach at Alabama and the Rams hired Smart away from Florida to become their new coach.

Those who knew Smart, who recognized his intelligence and diligence, understood it was a prescient hire.

Burgess didn’t know Smart.

“I was very anti-Coach Smart when he first came through,” Burgess admitted. “We joke about it a lot now. It almost seemed like I was sabotaging the team. The things he was talking about, I wasn’t 100 percent with.

“He said some things in the first couple of meetings that a couple of the guys didn’t like. It just rubbed myself and a couple of the other guys the wrong way: just certain ways we’d be playing, guys we’d be running the offense through, instead of everybody just having a free reign. As the first season went along, things changed, guys started playing different. We were involved more in the team. We started to get a better feel for each other, and guys started being more relaxed, more a cohesive unit.”

A little more than a year later, they all were in the Final Four. Burgess said that remains the most exciting thing that’s happened in his career. “It’s every player’s dream.” But he is looking forward to his Senior Night and the chance to avenge a loss to George Mason from earlier this season, when the Rams held a 5-point lead in the final 42 seconds and managed to lose it.

VCU and Mason are tied for second in the CAA, each a game behind Drexel. But the Dragons still have to play on the road at 4 p.m. Saturday against fourth-place Old Dominion. The Rams and Patriots should know if they’ve got a shot to share the league title sometime around their own tip-off.

“We let one slip away,” Burgess said. “We had the game won, but we didn’t finish it the right way. Mason took advantage of that. It shows the game is 40 minutes, and not anything less.”

Burgess will leave Mason having played more minutes than anyone and ranks in the top 10 in scoring, free throws, 3-pointers, rebounds and steals.

But what will distinguish him, likely for a long time, is the record for career starts. It will not be easy to break. Players such as Manning and Ewing, elite talents at the high-major schools, rarely play four seasons any longer. Players at the mid-major level often have trouble breaking into the lineup so early because of the prevalence of experienced veterans, and those who do rarely get the opportunity to play in so many games.

But VCU’s six-game Final Four run in 2011 helped separate Burgess from the crowd. “That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “Trying to be there for my team every day.”

And so he has, from beginning to end for four years. Saturday will be just one more, though a bit more special than a lot of the others.